Author: Miss Topping

P2/1 have started the new term with a new topic of learning that they are very excited about – Space! Children have been very enthusiastic about building rockets and learning about real life astronaut Chris Hadfield. They were most amazed to learn that when he was a little boy in 1969 most families didn’t have their own TV to watch the moon landing on!

While learning to write tally marks children went on a ‘space adventure’ to count the aliens, in art they worked together to design and paint their rocket, and during free play they showed great creativity and communication to build role-play rockets from everything including blocks, classroom furniture, garden equipment and always a large amount of imagination.

The children already have big plans for next week, when they want to fly their spacecraft to Mars to see what they find there!

While the campers were away having fun, children back at school were making the most of smaller numbers to collaborate on our Disability Awareness project. Over the course of the week children worked with Miss Smith, Miss Topping and Miss Sutherland to develop artistic skills representing this important topic.

In art children made self portraits that celebrated everyone’s uniqueness. In music children learned a song celebrating inclusion and respect for people with disabilities, and performed it beautifully by singing and playing tuned and untuned percussion instruments. In drama children created vignettes to highlight how people impacted by disability face challenges, and what we can do to help.

Look out for a showcase of all this and more on Thursday when we have a parade around the village!

Primary 1-4 and P7 Buddies had a cosy afternoon collaborating together to create some lovely items to share with the people in our lives who love and nurture us. Children enjoyed the opportunity to work in different groups, and got creative with wool wrapping, painting, collaging and patterning. We shared a story together that helped children understand that all families are unique and special, and talked about the reasons children have to celebrate people in their life. We hope families at home enjoyed their surprise handmade gifts and pictures!

P2/1 are enjoying Science Week so far. Today the P6 and P7 STEM Leaders visited our class to help us to conduct a skittles experiment. We enjoyed seeing the colours blend as the sugar dissolved, although we did wish we could ‘taste the rainbow’ even a little!

We explored materials and reactions by mixing different store-cupboard ingredients and testing the results – discovering that vinegar and baking soda are very exciting! P2s also researched famous female scientists from the past, and told the P1s and nursery class about how they challenged discrimination and made huge contributions to science. We are very glad that women and girls are not excluded from science any more, the girls and the boys in this class love getting hands on and exploring our world.

P2/1 had a wonderful time at a very special concert in Glasgow Royal Concert Hall this week. Children were able to experience Scotland’s top class orchestra playing live music, with acting and animation helping to create a really immersive experience for them.

The performance told the story of Yoyo, a young Scottish girl, as she explores multicultural themes and shows kindness and care to everyone. Children said “I loved the songs”, “My favourite bit was when she raced her boke, it was exciting”, “I loved the cosy cuddles with her teddy.” Experiences like this support our health and wellbeing conversations in school, and help children to recognise the rights of others.

As you can see from the happy faces in the photos, the class had a ball!